The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the Mountains of Heaven or the Heavenly Mountain or Mountains of God, is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Jengish Chokusu, at 7,439 metres (24,406 ft) high. Its lowest point is the Turpan Depression, which is 154 m (505 ft) below sea level.
Papilio machaon, the Old World swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the common yellow swallowtail or simply the swallowtail. It is the type species of the genus Papilio. This widespread species is found in much of the Palearctic and in North America.
The northern brown argus is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found throughout much of the Palearctic realm.
The dark green fritillary is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. The insect has a wide range in the Palearctic realm - Europe, Morocco, Iran, Siberia, Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan.
The Mountains of Central Asia are a biodiversity hot spot designated by Conservation International which covers several montane and alpine ecoregions of Central Asia, including those of the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges, and extending across portions of Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Karakoram range in China, Pakistan and India. The Karakoram range is also famously known for Karakoram Anomaly that relates to the anomalous growth of glaciers in the central Karakoram that is in contrast with melting glaciers in other mountainous ranges of Himalayas and other parts of the world due to the effects of climate change.
Pseudophilotes vicrama, the eastern baton blue, is a small butterfly found in Asia, east to Tian Shan and parts of China, west to the Balkans, Turkey, eastern Europe to southern Finland. It belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. The species was first described by Frederic Moore in 1865.
Polyommatus eros, the Eros blue or common meadow blue, is a species of blue butterfly found in the Palearctic.
Boloria is a brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae) genus. Clossiana is usually included with it nowadays, though some authors still consider it distinct and it seems to warrant recognition as a subgenus at least.
Turanana is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in the east Palearctic from Greece to Central Asia.
Leo Andreyevich Sheljuzhko was a Ukrainian-German entomologist who specialized in Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera. He wrote numerous scientific papers and books on the butterflies and moths of Central Asia, Ukraine, Far East, Caucasus in Russian, Ukrainian, German, and English, and described many new taxa.
Muschampia is a Palearctic genus of spread-winged skippers in the family Hesperiidae.
Polyommatus thersites, the Chapman's blue, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in southern Europe, Morocco, Lebanon, Asia Minor, Iran and across the Palearctic to Siberia and Tian Shan.
Melitaea solona is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Tian Shan mountains, Tibet, Alai and Trans-Alay regions.
Colias wiskotti is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Turkestan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kashmir. The habitat consists of xerophytic mountains.
Colias cocandica is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Central Asia.
The Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe ecoregion covers the foothills on the western edge of the Tien Shan and Alay Mountains of Central Asia. This territory is mostly in southeastern Uzbekistan, with a portion running north into Kazakhstan on the east side of the Syr Darya River, and a small portion in Turkmenistan.
The Gissaro-Alai open woodlands ecoregion covers the western foothills winding around two western offshoots of the Tian Shan Mountains in western Tajikistan, and parts of eastern Uzbekistan and western Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. The woodlands are typically of Juniper trees and shrubs, fitting the altitude zone situated between the desert valley floor, and the tree line, above which the mountain ridges are glaciated and barren.
